The Cult of Nutrition

Chances are, we've all heard that one before. It's a salesman's pitch, meant to play off our latent insecurities while evoking hopeful wonderment. Despite the statement's banality, to many, it's an irresistible call. Even the skeptical can be enticed. After all, there's no harm in listening... But if you turn away, you could miss out on something spectacular, transformational, or even revolutionary.

And when you listen, that's when you hear about a new dietary solution that could shake the nation from its heavy predicament, and help you get fitter and healthier than you've ever been before. This plan actually works!

Or, you might instead hear about faith, and how it's the only path to enlightenment and salvation.

In fact, the two are almost interchangeable. That's because nutrition is actually very similar to cult-like religion.

For starters, both cults and diets profess to have "answers" and impart benefits that will irrevocably change your life for the better. Veganism's pitch isn't very unlike Scientology's. Caveman Diet's isn't all that different from certain sects of Evangelical Baptism:

In the same way that cults produce zealots, nutrition produces fanatics. That's because personal experience frequently shapes the views of followers. A person who loses 100 pounds feasting on red meat and bacon can be as fervent

and fiery about their beloved diet as a follower who just met a charismatic cult leader.

consumers are so wedded to their beliefs that they're not interested in

adjusting their beliefs in response to new scientific findings.

But still, Challem writes, "They're just beliefs. And having millions of adherents or thousands of

experts repeat the same mantras doesn't make these beliefs truer." In other words, nutrition plans, just like religious cults commonly eschew science and reality.

There are literally thousands of scientific studies on nutrition, enough so that a pusher of any sort of diet could state their beliefs, cherry-pick data, and purport to be under the mantle of "science." With all the conflicting and poorly designed research out there, it's easy to find evidence to back any dietary assertion.